Conveying apparatuses of this type are used, for instance in the form of roller conveyors, for the conveyance of transporting structures. In the automotive industry, in particular vehicle bodies, or parts thereof, are transported with such conveying apparatuses between individual machining or treatment stations, such as, for instance, painting stations or dryers. The vehicle bodies, or parts thereof, are here fastened on so-called transport skids, which are known per se. These transport skids have two parallel skid runners, which during transport rest on rollers of the roller conveyor, which rollers are arranged generally in pairs, and one behind another in the direction of conveyance, on the longitudinal profiles of the conveying apparatus. A drive device comprises in practice a drivable roller, which acts on a runner of the transport skid. The drivable roller can be a supporting roller, on which the transport skid rests. Alternatively, the drive device can be configured as a friction wheel drive and comprise a drive wheel which acts laterally on the runner of the transport skid.
It must here be ensured that the drive wheel bears with sufficient force against the conveying runner of the transport skid in order to prevent unwanted slippage of the drive wheel.
In conveying apparatuses known from EP 2 523 878 B1, the bearing structure is a pivoted lever, the pivot axis of which runs parallel to the rotational axis of the drive wheel. The pivot axis of the pivoted lever and the rotational axis of the drive wheel here, in practice, run vertically, but also a solution having horizontal axes is known, wherein the axes there run in a horizontal plane perpendicular to the direction of transport. The mechanical structure is here very complex.